EPA Nominee is good at misleading Congress

President Obama has nominated Gina McCarthy to succeed Lisa Jackson as EPA administrator. When the Senate takes up her confirmation, lawmakers should be aware that McCarthy, the current chief of air regulation at EPA, has a history of misleading Congress and the public about her agency’s greenhouse gas regulations.

Oversight and Government Reform Committee in October 2011, McCarthy denied motor vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards are “related to” fuel economy standards. In so doing, she denied plain facts she must know to be true. She did so under oath.

Why does this matter? As we explain below, the falsehood that GHG standards and fuel economy standards are unrelated gave the EPA legal cover to grant a waiver authorizing California to implement its own de-facto fuel economy program. The waiver threatened to subject the auto industry to a “patchwork” of state-by-state fuel economy requirements.

The patchwork threat gave the White House leverage to offer regulatory protection in return for the auto industry’s support in legislative battles over the administration’s climate policies. Auto industry lobbying helped kill a key legislative effort to rein in the EPA and reclaim Congress’s authority to determine climate policy. As we also explain, McCarthy and the Air Office gave false assurances future GHG permitting requirements would not operate as a ban on new coal-based power. This deception too undermined legislation to curb the EPA’s greenhouse power grab.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/03/12/epa-nominee-gina-mccarthy-has-a-history-of-misleading-congress/